Pushed! Pushed I say!

So there are a number of things in the last couple of weeks that have happened that have led me to believe that I am being pushed to start working (as in making artwork) again. I could wax eloquent and deeply on each thing, going into how each little event and find affected me deep down inside, but then I probably wouldn't finish the post and eventually I would forget it all anyway. The main reason I am posting here, at least at this point, is so that I don't forget. And I forget a lot.

So here are some random things that have happened.

Home Sweet Home

• We moved. In November, a few weeks before my 5th and God willing last child was born, we came across the Perfect House and being sensible people we bought it. We moved in mid-January, just after my 41st birthday. It is clean and big and full of light on 5 acres and the first thing I thought when I saw the desert and mountains and sky oh my! was "I could paint here". 
• A dream. I was contacted by an old friend, a casual acquaintance from a few years back. We had considered doing graphic design together at one point but it never worked out. That night, I had a dream and in that dream I was an artist. When I woke up, I realized that I hadn't thought of myself that way in a long, long time...and how strange that was.
• The prayer. At Mass recently, we have been praying for artists, that they be inspired by the Holy Spirit. This seemed like a revolutionary idea as my experience of the modern art world is that it is a Godless and even evil place. 
• The letter. I heard on a radio program mention of a letter that John Paul II wrote to artists. Wait what? How come I had never heard of it? Well it turns out he did write such letter. It is beautiful and wonderful and Important. I printed it and was too excited to read more than the opening paragraphs. I was a pagan when I last made art and it hurt a lot. Perhaps if I trusted in Him it would be a completely different experience? 
• The Ebook. On Facebook I heard about a free Ebook being given away and although I had no idea who the author was or what it was about, I knew I needed to take a look at it. Turns out it was a motivational book geared towards young people to encourage them as artists. (Ok at this point things are starting to get creepy!)
• The Artwork. Found a portfolio full of my art from 1999 as we are still moving from the old house. Some really really good stuff in there, some so good I almost didn't recognize it as my own. Some bad stuff too; ironically those peices are the first of several life studies of the same subject with the last being pretty good. Goes to show the good stuff doesn't just materialize, it's worked toward.
• The Article. Saw a mention on National Catholic Register, a publication I check in on almost every day, of an article on a Catholic illustrator's guild. A what?? Oh joy!
• The Blog. The Catholic Illustrator's Guild has/is a blog. It really started me thinking, and I decided to start my own blog here. I will join when I have something to post. While perusing the posts, I came across the Very Last Thing.
• And finally: Super Obvious Secrets. This post has a couple of real gem lines. My favorite was "Pick up a cheap set of watercolor paints and play with them until your eyes turn into little hearts and you love them and they love you back and everyone is crying happy watercolor tears and embracing." until I read "You don’t grow by staying within your comfort zone. You’ll be a stinky stagnant little pool of moldy potential with little insects buzzing around and having desperate sexy times and laying eggs all over the damn place." I almost inhaled my lunch over that one because I thought it was so funny, and so Very True. The cartoon that goes with this point is below.
  

Yep, that's me. Ahem, former me.

So, I think I'm caught up with everything momentous at this point. I've written stuff down, and I'm ready to proceed. Exactly where that takes me I don't know, but I know it will be interesting. Rain has come to the Kalahari.